Docs Fail to Address Kids’ Weight Problems

Though they sound the alarm about increasing rates of childhood obesity, many doctors don’t actually record weight problems in children’s medical charts, according to a study published in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics. The study found that two-thirds of doctors seeing obese children at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh didn’t note when a child was overweight.

This doesn’t surprise David Geller, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatric endocrinologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and an advisor to Fit4Free, a nonprofit organization trying to prevent chronic health problems through community-based fitness and health-education programs. Dr. Geller says many pediatricians also fail to discuss weight information with parents.

“Basic height and weight information doesn’t get transmitted to the responsible individual as reliably as it should,” Geller notes, adding that this says a lot about the way in which we view being overweight or obese as a social concern rather than as a medical condition.

Geller maintains that a child’s physician should plot height and weight or calculate Body Mass Index (BMI) – based on kilograms of weight per height in square meters – at every checkup, and discuss weight-related issues with the child’s parents. “Parents need to know ‘where they stand’ so to speak,” he says.

In addition, all kids should also have regular blood-pressure checks beginning at age 3, according to the National High Blood Pressure Education Program’s Working Group on Children.